


The Beginning of a Story

by marshie_marshmallow



Series: Weasley Home for Wayward Wixen [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Hogwarts Mystery
Genre: Gen, Hufflepuff MC, brief appearances by others - Freeform, genderfluid Rowan Khanna, i wrote this before the latest HM update, rowan's pronouns switch around but its she/her for this one, takes place in HM year 3, weasley pride vs a stubbornly helpful hufflepuff and her friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 04:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15788967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshie_marshmallow/pseuds/marshie_marshmallow
Summary: It starts like this: Nora Sheridan is sitting in Charms class, shared between the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, on Thursday morning, a month and a half into the spring term of their third year, when a prefect knocks on the door and says that Charlie Weasley needs to go to the headmaster's office.





	The Beginning of a Story

**Author's Note:**

> in case you're wondering about nora's appearance, she's based on the character in the gameplay trailer

It starts like this: Nora Sheridan is sitting in Charms class, shared between the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, on Thursday morning, a month and a half into the spring term of their third year, when a prefect knocks on the door and says that Charlie Weasley needs to go to the headmaster's office.

The class murmurs as he gets up and leaves, everyone wondering if he's in trouble, but she shrugs it off and turns back to her textbook. Charlie's not known to be a rulebreaker, so she can't imagine it as anything that would put him in _too_ much trouble. Anyway, she can always ask him or his brother, Bill, about it at lunchtime.

When lunch rolls around, however, neither Weasley is anywhere to be seen. Curious about their absence, she asks one of the Gryffindor prefects, Angelica, who says that they were both taken to the headmaster's office and neither one has been seen since.

Deciding there's nothing that can be done about it, Nora takes her seat at the Hufflepuff table where Penny Haywood quizzes her on Potions for their upcoming test.

At dinner, the brothers still haven't returned and the rumor mill is starting up, their absence having not gone unnoticed. Nora gets a sinking feeling in her gut but tries her best to ignore it as she stuffs chicken in her mouth.

The next morning, she meets Ben Copper on her way to the Great Hall and he tells her that Charlie and Bill hadn't returned to the Gryffindor common room the night before. She has little time to wonder on the implications, though, as the morning Prophet makes it entirely clear what's happened.

Apparently, a Death Eater who wasn't caught and who never got over the loss of his master has been trying to kill off people who fought against them in the war. His latest target had been an Auror, now retired, who had been fairly friendly with Arthur and Molly Weasley. While the two were visiting, an explosion went off and destroyed most of the house.

There were no survivors.

Nora becomes acutely aware of the murmurs through the Great Hall, as everyone realizes now why the Weasleys were pulled out of class and have yet to return.

“Well,” Tonks says, gritting her teeth, “at least they caught the bas-”

“Language!” comes Jane's sharp reprimand from down the table.

“What's gonna happen to them?” Rowan asks in a quiet voice.

“I don't know,” Nora replies, fidgeting with her tie. Bill is her friend and she likes Charlie, even if they've never spoken much. Already, she can feel the burning urge to _do_ something, as she always does when her friends are in trouble.

She's just not sure what she _can_ do.

* * *

 The following Saturday at lunchtime, a little more than a week since they left, Bill and Charlie return to Hogwarts. In that time, their parents were buried and arrangements were made for the remaining five siblings to be sent to some relative.

Nobody in school seems certain how to act around them. Even from her position, one table over and a little way down, Nora can see shadows on their faces. She's never known either of them to ever be particularly easy to upset. Panicked, maybe, when Bill got himself trapped in the cursed ice the previous year, or worried when he thought he'd ruined his chances at making prefect, but this isn't something that can be solved with a well-placed fire spell or a chat over dinner. She's not sure if she should even go up and talk to them.

She watches as the other Gryffindors leave a space around them. Ben, for a moment, looks like he might approach but then backs out and goes to sit with another kid that she recognizes from Charms class.

After lunch, they shut themselves up in Gryffindor tower and leave the student body to buzz about the tragedy.

* * *

 That same night, Ben wakes up in the middle of the night to find Charlie's bed empty. The bathroom isn't occupied, but the door to their dorm is ajar. There's one of two places Charlie is likely to be then.

Ben follows his instincts and makes his way to the common room, where he can see someone sitting on the floor in front of the embers of the fire, knees curled up to their chest.

“Charlie?” he asks and the figure turns their head to look at him.

“Oh... Hi, Ben.”

Ben walks over and sits down cross-legged on the floor next to Charlie, staring at the fireplace. They stay like that for a while, silent, before Ben speaks again.

“I lost my mum, you know, about a year before I started here at Hogwarts.” Charlie looks at him quizzically but doesn't reply, so he keeps going. “She had gone to the store to pick up some stuff for dinner. It wasn't far from our flat, so she could walk there. On her way back, she was hit by a car. Some guy who got drunk at four in the afternoon and decided to go driving took my mum from me.”

“... I didn't know.”

“I don't really like to tell people. They always get this sad look in their eye and tell me they're sorry, but they never really mean it.”

“They pity you?”

“Yeah. Most people don't even know who I'm talking about. They just see a poor little kid who lost his mum. It's not like they ever know what it's like. They can pity me for her death and then go home to their own mothers and think 'at least it didn't happen to me.'”

“I think there were people like that. At the funeral, I mean. Other friends of theirs going 'oh at least the insane Death Eater didn't blow up _my_ house! My kids will still have parents!' You know, up until last week, the thought of someone using the word 'orphan' to describe me and my siblings seemed laughable.”

“Yeah... Guess I'm luckier than you, in that case. I've still got Dad... though he got so depressed after Mum died that for a while it seemed like I was going to lose him, too. It was Gran that took care of me for the most part.”

“I don't know what's going to happen to us. Nobody can really take care of all of us at once but nobody wants to split us up either. I think... I think Bill's already decided that he's gonna try to claim custody once he's graduated. Or maybe just once he's seventeen and he just won't take his NEWTs. We still have the house. We just can't live in it unless there's somebody there to take care of the others.”

Ben doesn't reply to that. Charlie doesn't seem to care.

* * *

 What happens is this: while Ben has helped Charlie in the two weeks since the Weasley brothers came back to school, Bill continues to ignore people. He throws himself into his duties as prefect and studying for his OWLs. He doesn't raise his hand in class, spends every free hour in the library, and usually skips at least one meal a day.

When Nora or the other prefects try to check on him, he brushes them off and says he's busy. Nora is studying the Boggart-Banishing Charm with Tulip Karasu to get into her brother's room and helping all her other friends with any manner of problems they find themselves with but she finds it hard to focus when there's a friend in distress who she can't help.

She's in the library looking for texts on Transfiguration with Tonks when the sound of something shattering catches her attention. She peeks around to see Bill at one of the private desks, staring at the shattered remains of an inkwell that now sit on a piece of parchment. She moves closer and can see red mixing with the black of the ink. He must have cut his hand on the glass when he dropped it. He makes no move to clean it up, instead staring at the mess of ink and blood and broken glass that's spread out over the parchment as if it's all entirely foreign to him.

“Bill?” she asks softly. He doesn't respond and she moves closer. The cut on his hand is visible now and it looks fairly large. “Hey, Bill. Are you alright?”

Tonks approaches from behind her, quiet as he finally seems to notice other people.

“I'm fine...” He mumbles and Nora is sure she can see tears in the corner of his eyes.

“We should take care of that cut. Tonks, can you take care of the mess while I help Bill with his wound?”

She doesn't wait for a response but simply grabs Bill by the arm and starts leading him away. He makes no effort to fight her but follows along quietly as she walks out of the library and towards the nearest bathroom. It's a men's room, but Nora marches in regardless, sparing only a brief thought to be grateful that it's currently empty.

She turns the tap on and starts to inspect the wound, making sure there aren't any larger pieces of glass she needs to pull out. When she's satisfied with that, she forces his hand under the water to rinse out any smaller glass bits or ink that might remain.

“Are you okay, Bill?” she asks,

He stares blankly at his hand under the running water, not answering. Nora bites her lip and pulls his hand out, confident that it's clean now, before getting her wand out. With a wave and a murmured incantation (she silently thanks Madam Pomfrey for the private lessons on healing magic), the cut closes up.

“I wish you would talk to me,” she says quietly as she turns the tap off. “I want to help you.”

“I don't think you can,” he replies, not looking at her.

“We can't know that without trying.”

Bill looks like he wants to argue but clenches his jaw instead. There are dark shadows under his eyes, which doesn't surprise her. She never imagined he'd been sleeping well.

“I think that you just don't want help.”

“This isn't any of your concern, Nora.”

“You're my _friend_ , Bill! And I can't just sit by when my friend is in trouble!”

“Some problems are too big to help with, okay? My life is over because of one maniac!”

“... Talking about it might help. Even if I can't help you personally, I might be able to suggest someone who can.”

When Bill looks into her eyes, full of compassion and pleading for him to let her ease his burden, he finds himself collapsing to the floor as he breaks down.

* * *

 In the Hufflepuff common room that evening, Nora sits sideways on one of the overstuffed armchairs, legs dangling over the edge. Jane'll probably scold her for it, but she doesn't care. She's changed out of her uniform and into her pyjamas, with the badger slippers that Penny had given her as a joke for her thirteenth birthday. (They make squeaking noises when she walks. Childish, perhaps, but she's quite fond of them.)

Penny herself is on the couch that sits next to Nora's chair, on the far end. Rowan sits at the near end, legs tucked up beside her. Tonks is slumped in the other chair, at Penny's end, munching on a liquorice wand as they mull over the plan they were just told.

“You sure they'd be okay with it?” she asks around a mouthful of liquorice.

Nora shrugs. “They'll need all the help they can get.”

“I'd be willing to pitch in,” Penny says.

“Well, yeah,” Tonks says, swallowing her candy and waving the half-eaten wand around. “I'm ready to help, too, but you know they've got their pride. They're from a family of _Gryffindors_.”

“Loyalty is a Gryffindor trait as much as it's a Hufflepuff trait,” Nora replies.

“Well yeah, but Gryffindor loyalty and Hufflepuff loyalty are two different kinds. That's like saying a wand made by Ollivander is the same as a wand made by... fuck. A wand made by some other wandmaker.”

“Gregorovitch?” Rowan supplies.

“Fuck. Yeah. That guy. Anyway, loyalty means jackshit when their other house traits are shit like bravery and heroics and self-sacrifice because that means pride and pride means stubbornly refusing help.” She bites hard into her liquorice wand as if making some kind of statement by chewing her candy with a stare on her face.

“Can they afford not to accept help, though?” Rowan asks.

“Doubt it,” Nora says. “I'll make them accept our help, one way or another.”

“That sounds mildly threatening.”

“It'll work out.”

“Let's hope,” Tonks says and the group falls into silence.

* * *

“Absolutely not.”

Nora rolls her eyes. “Tonks was right. You _are_ being stubborn.”

Bill stares at her over his butterbeer (at least she had managed to talk him into letting her pay) and frowns. “I'm not making spend your summer vacation working on my behalf.”

“You wouldn't be _making_ me do anything! I'd just be getting a summer job and then giving the money to you.” She figures now would be a bad time to mention that she had actually planned to ask Madam Rosmerta if she could work shifts at The Three Broomsticks. If he doesn't like her sacrificing her summers to work, he _really_ wouldn't like her sacrificing her Hogsmeade weekends.

“Yeah. Summer jobs are one thing when you're getting the money for yourself, but handing it all over to me-”

“Bill, if we all pitch in, you might actually have some money when you leave school. Even with Percy being here at Hogwarts next year and the twins starting right after you leave, you won't be able to get a regular job until Ron and Ginny have both started. Unless you find someone who can watch them, I mean.”

“I know tha- wait, what do you mean by ' _all_?'”

“I mean all of us. I've already gone over it with Rowan, Penny, and Tonks in the Hufflepuff common room. I'm pretty sure Ben will help. Don't really know about Tulip.”

“... _No!_ ”

“Too late. They're meeting us here later to go over it.”

“You can't make me accept it.”

“If you won't take my money, then I will break into Gringotts and place it directly into your vault.”

He squints as if trying to decide whether or not she's serious. After a moment, he folds his arms on the table, rests his head face-down on top of them, and groans. “It's like arguing with a brick wall.”

“I could say the same about you.”

* * *

The ensuing argument (or very heated discussion, depending on who you ask) when Nora presents her idea to the group as a whole consists mostly of the Weasley brothers resisting the attempts of everybody else to help. At some point, Liz Tuttle and Andre Egwu join the table, despite not being initially invited, and wind up offering their help. Merula wanders over at one point, to mock them mostly, and very nearly gets hexed for her trouble.

Eventually, Bill buries his face in his hands. “I hate that I can find no good argument to anything you guys are saying.”

“Is this you conceding to accept our help?” Nora asks.

“Fuck, I- shit, okay. Do whatever the hell you want.”

Charlie doesn't make any attempt to argue with his brother but still seems unhappy about the idea.

“Do we even know what we're doing, though?” Tulip asks. “I mean to earn money?”

“Well, step one is to find places willing to hire a handful of thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds over the summer,” Rowan says. “My parents might be willing to pay one or two people to help out on the farm if I talk to them.”

“I _would_ offer to sell potions, but the cost of the ingredients might negate it too much,” Penny says. “Also you need a license from the Ministry.”

“That could be a problem,” Liz comments.

“I can't really get a job in the magical world and most muggles don't hire kids our age,” Ben says. “I might be able to do odd jobs... though the conversion rate for pounds to Galleons isn't very favorable, so it probably won't be much in the end.”

“Any little bit will help,” Nora replies.

“So you have a plan to earn money to _give_ to _us_ except you don't even have the full plan?” Charlie asks.

“It's not the sort of thing you can plan entirely ahead. Also, I first came up with it about four days ago.”

Charlie joins his brother in hiding his face in his hands.

“You know, even if we can't earn money, there are other things we could all do to help,” Andre says. “I'm pretty good with a needle and thread, so I can help with clothes... whatever that might mean.”

“You already know how I can help,” Penny adds.

“I'm really good at pranks,” Tulip offers. Bill stares at her in bafflement. “If you need that for anything.”

“I, uh, I'm decent at Herbology?” Tonks says. “Nora might be better, though. Also, I'm really good at pranks, too.”

“... We need to talk more.”

“Oh definitely.”

Charlie furrows his brow. “You two are never allowed to meet the twins.”

“ _Ever,”_ Bill adds.

“The Hogwarts curriculum doesn't change much. If you need any books to pass down that you don't have, you could check with us,” Rowan suggests.

“Hell, we can pass down other stuff, too,” Nora says. “School robes. Clothes in general. Books that aren't textbooks. Anything, really.”

“You guys are... really dedicated to this, aren't you?” Charlie asks.

“You're friends. Friends who need help even if you don't want to admit it. We're just doing what's right.”

“... Thanks.”

* * *

The end of the beginning is this: when they return home that summer, having faced their worst fears and broken the curse on the school, with a broken arrow and a map, they all take to the plan, with partial success.

Ben works odd jobs in the muggle world, just like he said. Mowing lawns and planting regular, nonmagical flowers don't terrify him, as this is the world he comes from and these have always been part of his life. (The babysitting job he gets at one point freaks him out, though. He doesn't like being entrusted with a small child.)

Penny marches into a potions shop on Diagon Alley and her skill and knowledge impress the owner enough that he agrees to let her help with organizing stock for the summer.

Andre, who already works as a TA for flying classes, tutors kids in just that.

Liz takes up Rowan's offer of working on the tree farm. The bowtruckles present on the farm likely influenced her decision.

Nora and the rest (now including Barnaby Lee) sort through everyone's old belongings and throws things into three categories. One to be held in storage for the Weasleys (they figure Ginny will appreciate having girl's clothes readily available), one to throw out, and a third to sell to pawn shops for cash.

When Percy Weasley starts Hogwarts that September, he has his dad's wand, hand-me-down robes, a rat that doesn't do anything except sleep and eat, and, bafflingly, a handful of fourth-years that seem overly concerned with his wellbeing.

This, though, is only the beginning.

 


End file.
